The Economic Factors Affecting Internet Diffusion in Iran Using the Fuzzy Regression

نویسندگان [English]

Behzad Salmani1؛ Hamid Zolghadr2؛ Mostafa Shokri2

1Professor of Economics, University of Tabriz

2Ph.D. Student in Economics, University of Tabriz

چکیده [English]

Internet by creating new conditions and opportunities for economic growth, allows the less developed countries to reduce their deep economic gap with developed countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of economic factors on the internet diffusion in Iran over the period of 1994-2015. Using a fuzzy regression, this study is going to estimate the type of relationship between variables which estimates a range of possible values of parameters. Results of the model show that, per capita income, urbanization rate, openness, human capital, and share of the service sector in GDP have a positive effect on the internet diffusion. But the impact of agriculture sector’s share in GDP is negative on the internet diffusion.